The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

Butterfield's band was bi-racial with rythym section consisting of Howlin' Wolf Band veterans Jerome Green on bass and the mighty Sam Lay on drums. Elvin Bishop, a University of Chicago student from Oklahoma learned guitar under the tutelage of another Howlin' Wolf veteran, Smokey Smothers. From 1963 until 1965 Bishop and Butterfield played together at Little John's a smokey blues joint on Chicago's northside. Near the time of this recording, Mark Naftalin was added to the band. Naftalin, a former University of Chicago student, played understated but tasty solos on Hammond organ. Naftalin was a nuanced jazz player having received a year of formal training at Mannes College of Music, where he was recruited by Butterfield for the band.

Many of the tracks from this album were originally recorded without Michael Bloomfield's guitar, but Butterfield reluctantly added Bloomfield, an out of work session player under contract to Columbia Records, at the urging of Paul Rothschild, the brilliant producer at the budding Elektra record label. Bloomfield was a young guitar savant whose signture guitar style contained elements of Albert King's tension, release and sustained feedback; Wes Montgomery's cascading flurries of jazz notes; Elmore James' electrifying bottle neck; and even unconvential modalities like atonal Indian ragas and swaying samba rythyms. The diffence of the in the master tapes with and without Bloomfield is startling. The addition of Bloomfield's explosive guitar playing appears to have ignited the entire band

On the opening cut, "Born In Chicago" Butterfield wastes no time in dispelling the white blues efficacy argument with his take no prisoners approach to blues shouting. The hard edged lyrics to Nick Gravenites's song,"...I was born in Chicago in 1941, and my father told me, son you had better get a gun", seemed to be issuing a challenge to the Doubting Thomases with staid intellectual theories of black authenticity. Butterfield's haromica playing is so uniquely sculpted that comparisons to either Little Walter or Sonny Boy Williamson are futile. The approach of the Butterfield Blues Band raises the ante to new sonic levels. The decibel level is so high and the playing is so intense that it appears that the band can generate enough electricity to light up the Chicago skyline. Butterfield and his guitarist Bloomfield appear to be circling each other like caged lions in the crossfire between the harmonica and guitar solos. Elvin Bishop's rippling and bracing guitar solos are almost an afterthought because Butterfield and Bloomfield remained locked in a tense struggle for sonic domination of the band that rages like a prarie fire until the last note of the final song, "Look Over Yonder's Wall."

Such was the legendary mutual ambivalence between Paul Butterfield and Michael Bloomfield...the twin towers of the Butterfield Blues Band. Both men were so endowed with rare musical talent that only an act of serendipity placed them on the same stage together. They were linked forever by this hellaciously good band, but each seemed to be saying to the other the equivalent of, "This band ain't big enough for the both of us." It was this brinksmanship between Butter and Bloom that often pushed the band into uncharted territory.

I saw this edition of the Butterfield Band twice in concert and their approach to both jazz and blues was so intense that they appeared to be tearing a hole in the fabric of the cosmos itself, armed with the sword of Damocles. The brilliance of Paul Rothchild's production was that he captured this raw intensity and seamless playing skill on vinyl. One can take a snapshot of the eye of a hurricane, but few photos capture the fury of storm, itself. Rothchild seemed to have bottled a raging force of nature, using some form of trickery at the studio mixing console. Bloomfield was partially responsible because he was the rare musician could play on a both a concert stage, or the clinical setting of a studio booth with the same pulse stopping immediacy.

For better or for worse, Butterfield's first album was an early statement of a generation of musicians who were unwilling to accept the arbitrary limits of conventional wisdom. It was 1965; and the musical revolution that about to change everyone's lives so dramatically was just budding forth. As the Sixties unfolded a hundreds of self-styled musicians bloomed into musical maturity and like Butterfield and Bloomfield, they challenged conventional wisdom and often their creativity crossed the divide between the sacred and the profane, but we are all better people for it.

Mientras los grupos Ingleses de mediados de los 60 redescubrían el blues y lo llevaban a grandes audiencias, al otro lado del Atlántico Paul Butterfield y su banda inician ya en forma definitiva el blues rock, dejando bien en claro el tema a los entusiastas jóvenes Ingleses.

Aunque no exactamente blues blanco (un tercio del grupo no lo es), las verdaderas estrellas son Butterfield y Bloomfield, que con 23 y 22 años más bien parecen veteranos maestros del blues que dos jovenes aprendices. Lo cierto es que el dominio y seguridad que muestra Butterfield tanto al canto como en la armónica están muy por encima de los típicos cantantes blancos de la época. Mención aparte merece Mike Bloomfield, quizás el guitarrista menos reconocido en la historia del rock. ni Clapton ni Beck tsonaban como Bloomfield en 1965, un guitarrista verdaderamente genial que en los instrumentales Thank You Mr. Poobah y Screamin' y en Blues With A Feeling muestra lo mejor de su talento.

Si John Mayall y compañía se llevaron el crédito en Inglaterra, Paul Butterfield y su banda (gran compañía también) merecen un destacado lugar en la historia por su enorme influencia en el desarrollo del blues y su variante más rock.

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   Written on November 4, 2003
   Summary: Butter Your Bread!!!
Looking back over the legacy of 1960's blues, some 40 years on, with so many wonderful contributions made by the likes of Savoy Brown, John Mayall, Cream, the Animals, and the Yardbirds; i.e. by white British kids, you begin to wonder: where was the youth of America during this revival? Did they not make their own contributions? The answer, of course, is a resounding Yes; one could look to San Francisco and Canned Heat, Texas and Johnny Winter, and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band from the Windy City. Their self-titled debut album remains a fabulous part of that legacy. On "Born in Chicago," Paul Butterfield's gritty vocals and honking harmonica prove without a doubt that white man could play the blues. (There used to be, and still are, heated debates as to whether whites could adequately play music near and dear to black roots.) Sam Lay takes over the microphone for the Muddy Water's classic "Got My Mojo Workin'" and gives a nonstop performance with plenty of soul. "Mellow Down Easy" is a first-rate take of the Little Walter tune (if not quite as mellow or easy as the original), while "Look Over Yonder's Wall" would in a few years be a highlight of the band's set at the Monterey Pop Festival. But, without a doubt, the best number on the disc (and, in my mind, the best performance EVER of this song) is Paul's bone-shaking rendition of "Shake Your Moneymaker," with both Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop roaring away on their guitars at ninety miles an hour. Sensational!!! By contrast, "Last Night" is slow blues perfection, with Paul once again proving many hours spent in the discipleship of Little Walter. Harp heaven!! So, get this album right away, and just remember: the bread of life often needs a little butter to make it extra tasty!!!

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   Written on September 20, 2003
   Summary: Historic!
The late Paul Butterfield from Chicago, Illinois was the first white bluesman to develop a style original and powerful enough to place him in the pantheon of true blues greats.

It is really impossible to overestimate the importance of his efforts - before Paul Butterfield came to prominence, white musicians in Britain and the US alike treated the blues with cautious respect, afraid of coming off as inauthentic (and with good reason, too).

But Butterfield cleared the way for white musicians to build upon the blues tradition (instead of merely replicating it), and on this excellent 1965 album he and a star-studded band which includes Sam Lay and guitarist Michael Bloomfield churn out superb, muscular renditions of Elmore James' "Shake Your Moneymaker" and "Look On Yonder Wall", Little Walter's "Last Night" and "Blues With A Feeling", Junior Parker's "Mystery Train", and Muddy Waters' "I Got My Mojo Working" with a great, raw lead vocal from drummer Sam Lay.

Bloomfield's and Butterfield's playing is sublime, and the band mixes covers with original songs: the soulful, Elmore James-like "Our Love Is Drifting", the instrumentals "Screamin'" and "Thank You Mr Poobah", and Nick Gravenite's excellent "Born In Chicago".

Much more muscular and authentic sounding than other early white blues combos, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was one of the most energetic and convincing 60s blues bands, and this is one of Butterfield's very best albums.
4 1/2 stars - highly recommended.

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   Written on March 8, 2003
   Summary: The Best Blues in Black and White!
The power and intensity of the Blues. What racial relations are capable of in terms of achieving a higher LEVEL -- the Brits are great but you cannot touch this. Butter and Bloomers cut it on stage in Black Chicago with Muddy, Holwin Wolf, etc. This is the Real dues paying Deal with members of Muddy's band joining Butter and getting paid better to deliver electric, soaring, heart breaking blues.
It dont get any better than this.
Buy this CD.